The total open water area of all estuaries at 

 high tide is 2,081,525 acres (842,393 ha), which 

 is slightly greater than the area of America's 

 largest estuary, Chesapeake Bay (2,071,680 

 acres = 838,409 ha). 



Table 1 also includes the diurnal (daily) range 

 of the tide for various bays and segments of the 

 coast. We used diurnal ranges rather than mean 

 ranges because the latter are lacking for most 

 of the coast. Tides are of two types: mixed 



diurnal and semidiurnal, but are predominantly 

 semidiurnal from Florida Bay to Apalachicola 

 Bay and diurnal from St. Joseph Bay to Perdido 

 Bay (Marmer, 1954; Zetler and Hansen, 1970). 

 The mean diurnal tidal range (4.2-4.5 ft = 

 1.3-1.4 m) is greater from Cape Sable to the 

 Gordon River (at Naples) than on any other 

 part of the coast; elsewhere, ranges of about 

 1.5-3.5 ft (0.5-1.1 m) are typical. 



Perdido 



Choctowhatchee Bay 



Lemon Bay- 

 Pine Island Sound - 



, Old Tampa Bay 



'Hillsborough Bay 



-Tampa Bay 



• Sarasota Bay System 

 .Charlotte Harbor 



— Caloosahatchee River 



Estero Pass^' j j L | 

 Doctors Pass- — U 1 



Caxambas Pass 



ill ^Mormon Key 



o „ L--_ 4R| .Whitewater Bay 



Lostmans River pv y i > 



_ X 



Lake Ingraham — '-K^^ I -rT. 3R 



Cape Sable 



'Florida Ba 



Figure 2. — Index map. Numbers are Figure numbers; letters indicate left or right side of figures. 



